October 6, 1863. ] 



JOTIENAL OF HOKTICtTLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAJIDENEE. 



267 



enthusiastic in their pursuit ; and the best varieties of the 

 different flowers are to he seen in many a little garden and 

 window where formerly nothing but the very commonest 

 things were grown. This success is to be attributable to 

 several causes. In the first place there has been a loyal 

 working together of both the working man and the gentle- 

 man. The latter have not assumed that patronising air 

 which too often mars the very best intentions. They have 

 felt, I believe, that as the real working-out of the details 

 rests on the former, they should in their arrangements be 

 considered as in a position of equality. Secondly, We have 

 been contented with offering very small prizes : thus, our 

 highest award is 10s., the lowest Is. This has not made 

 any very heavy demand on the liberality of our neighbours, 

 while it has been sufficient to induce the best growers in 

 our neighbourhood (not for their own sakes but for then- 

 gai-deners), to exhibit. "Where large prizes are offered it 

 runs into a large sum, and often considerably tends, under 

 nnfavoiu'able circumstances of weather, &o., to drag the 

 Society down. If we were to go on and prosper we might 

 possibly increase them, but at present we feel that we are 

 safest by keeping in shallow waters. 



The time of year at which we hold our Show is not a 

 favourable one ; but then we are obliged to wait for the 

 advent of visitors who frequent our neighbourhood as a 

 watering-place, and also for the time when out-of-door fruits, 

 &c., can be obtained, without which many of our exhibitors 

 would not be able to come forward; and the main object 

 being the encouragement of gardening in its various 

 branches, we are obliged to study in these little matters 

 what may be most to the interest of aU. 



There are two classes of exhibitors. In the first are com- 

 prised nurserymen, market-gardeners, and gentlemen who 

 employ a gardener in whole or in part ; in the second those 

 who cultivate their own gardens. This allows for the ad- 

 mission of amateurs and cottagers, who contend in friendly 

 rivalry together. 



Our Exhibition this year was much in advance of all its 

 predecessors. Plants were well grown and novelties were 

 exhibited; while in vegetables I think it would have been 

 very difficult in any part of the kingdom to have beaten those 

 brought forward. Our market gardeners are somewhat 

 famous, and the soil is so excellent that they are enabled to 

 produce most creditable specimens of their skfll ; while the 

 interest manifested in the Show by all classes of the com- 

 munity shows how much good it has done. 



These few facts are brought forward simply to encourage 

 those who are anxious to do anything of a similar cha- 

 racter, and who have been deterred by seeming difficiilties. 

 As a clergyman I can bear witness to the good effects of 

 such societies in a moral point of view ; and anything that 

 tends to improve the taste and refine the minds of our 

 middle classes, as well as to keep the poor man at home, 

 ought to be hailed as a good. We are too much in the 

 habit of considering merely the poor in our arrangements ; 

 but I am inclined to think that the small tradesman and 

 persons in a similar class of life ought equally to be the 

 objects of our consideration ; and this is one of those agencies 

 which unobtrusively, yet surely, have the effect of drawing 

 away the mind, partially at any rate, from the grosser 

 desires and feelings to those which are more matters of 

 taste and refinement, besides giving an ever-fruitfol source 

 of pleasureable enjoyment. — D., Deal. 



THE STYEIAN PEAK. 

 We have long known the Styrian Pear, and we have all 

 the time believed it to be one not possessing any particular 

 merit. Our experience, it is true, has been obtained in the 

 southern counties, and there this variety comes far short 

 of what is required in a first-rate Pear. It happens, how- 

 ever, that sou, situation, and climate affect in no ordinary 

 degree some sorts of fruits ; and we were not surprised 

 when our excellent and practised correspondent, Mr. HiU, 

 of Keele Hall, so frequently extolled to us the merits of the 

 Styrian Pear. We must confess to have had soijie mis- 

 givings, notwithstanding the opinion of so good an authority, 

 thinking that he spoke by comparison with some of the 

 finer sorts of Peais in that cold Staffordshire climate with 



which he so successfully combats. Determined,' however, 

 that his own opinion should not be the only argument 

 brought to bear on the subject, Mr. Hill has sent us a box 

 containing a few of these Pears ; and we must confess that, 

 for beauty of appearance, there is no Pear we know to sur- 

 pass them. The annexed figure is a correct representation 

 of one of the small fruits. The colour next the sun is a 

 brilliant vermilion gradually shading off to a bright citron 

 yellow. The cheek is as if varnished. The flesh is yellow- 

 ish, very fine-grained, tender, buttery, melting, and unusu- 

 ally juicy. The juice is sweet, piquant, and with a beautiful 

 vanilla perfume. 



This is a most delicious Pear, and unsurpassed by any 

 other variety of its season, which is the last week of Sep- 

 tember and the beginning of October. 



Had this Pear been grown in the south, where at this 

 season there are so many of first-rate excellence to compete 

 with it in point of flavour, it is a question whether we should 

 have selected it as a variety of unusual excellence ; but 

 coming as it does from a part of the country where it is with 

 difficulty that the finer kinds of Pears can be grown, and 

 where Peaches and Nectarines cannot be grown on the open 

 wall, we hail the Styrian Pear as a valuable acquisition to 

 our collections of fruits, for those hite and exposed localities. 

 But to enable our readers to judge of this in all its bear- 

 ings, we extract from Mr. HiU's letter the following valuable 

 observations : — 



" I send you specimens of the Styrian Pear from a graft 

 on the Citron des Caxmes. You will observe how beauti- 

 fully coloured it is. We find it one of the best flavoured 

 Pears we have in its season, and by grafting on several 

 difi'erent stocks we have it much longer in succession. 

 Grafted on Buchanan's Spring Beurre, it is fully a month 

 later than on the Citron des Cannes. We have also Marie 

 Louise and Althorp Crasanne grafted on the latter. They 

 are always a few weeks earlier, and of excellent flavour. 



